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Nick Provanzano Makes Case for Towing Relocation Regs

After I posted Anchor Towing owner Dan Hunt’s objections to the ordinance being considered by the McHenry County Board, Nick Provanzano, Law & Justice Committee, emailed the following, which I thought might be of interest:

Cal,

As a conservative, I take regulation of small businesses very seriously and have tried to find an alternative to the ICC oversight. Sometimes its appropriate for government to protect the people from each other. President Reagan said Government should never due for people what people can do for themselves. Our citizens of McHenry County have no way to protect themselves from predatory towing operators.

You need to understand that this regulation would only pertain to “Relocation Towing” and not emergency or safety towing.

Relocation towing is when a vehicle owner trespasses onto private property and parks their vehicle. The private property owner contracts with a commercial vehicle relocator to remove these vehicles from his private property.

Safety towing is when you call AAA or whomever to tow a vehicle because it is no longer operational, either from an accident or malfunction. A police tow is when a law enforcement agency orders the vehicle removed from a public road. The proposed resolution does not cover any aspect of a safety tow or a police tow.

The goal of the resolution is to fairly spread out the responsibility for the safe removal and subsequent storage of a trespassed vehicle amongst the vehicle owner, the private property owner and the commercial towing relocator.

Please keep in mind we are discussing the safe return of a very important asset that can range from a few thousand dollars up to one hundred thousand dollars. How much would you pay to get back your $28,000 mini-van?

As we have seen from relocation towers who are operating in McHenry County, the amount ranges based on the value of the asset and the perceived ability for the person to pay.

That is wrong.

As I mentioned previously, sometimes its appropriate for government to protect the people from each other. President Reagan said Government should never due for people what people should do for themselves.

Our citizens of McHenry County have no way to protect themselves from predatory towing operators.

One would say that the people who have been victims were to blame because they chose to trespass onto private property to park. I have heard from several people about how easy it is to end up on private property and not truly understand you have trespassed.

Having said that, nothing in our resolution or in the state statute would diminish the civil liability a trespassed vehicle owner would face as a result of his trespassing.

Nor does it diminish a private citizen from maintaining his right to remove trespassed vehicles from his private property. It merely regulates the operational rules of the commercial relocation towing process.

The question regarding $7.50 ICC invoices was raised to ICC Police Commander Baner and his response was that this is a revenue generating tool to help offset the cost for oversight and complaint resolution. On the back of this invoice are the complete instructions to assist a person to file a complaint with a relocation tower.

I have also attached a few documents that you may find helpful. One is the consumer’s guide to relocation towing which was prepared by the ICC. The other document is the results of my review of the State Statute on the benefits to the consumers of McHenry County if we as a board opt in to the ICC regulations. I also have been receiving questions from fellow board members during our research and have compiled these questions and answers along with an ICC Relocator fee schedule.

If you have any further concerns or questions please feel free to contact me.